Skip to main content

The Purpose of Worship - Kaitlyn Terry

 St. Augustine makes it perfectly clear that the purpose of worship is not to sing, though many Christians get caught up in that. The purpose of worship is to learn and praise, the music is simply a vessel. Oftentimes Christians seem to get caught up in the performance of worship, not the benefits of the words being sung. Worship, specifically the Psalms, is said to be an "Arbitrator of souls, restraining the disorder and turbulence of thoughts.. it softens the passion of the soul and moderates its unruliness" (St. Basil par 2). 

Worship is meant to provoke thought and peace, it is not meant to be performative. While worship is meant to provoke thought, it is not, however, meant to be glorified and it is not meant to be a source of theology. Worship and the accompanying music is a vessel for God's word and love, not vice versa. Music was, and still is an essential medium of worship, but it is not everything. Music is a means of communicating worship, and it should not take the focus off of what is being sung.

(I commented on Brooke and Leanne's posts)

Comments

  1. Haylee LyndJanuary 25, 2021 at 8:14 PM

    I 100% agree with this. Especially today, with modern tech- lights and speakers and screens- it's easy to forget that the performance and the visuals don't matter, and I'm saying this as a techie. It doesn't matter at all in comparison to Jesus. I know worship leaders and tech team members of the church get caught up in worrying about what the congregation might think of the visuals and the lights. I know its's exciting and tempting to focus on those things. They're not bad things. If used correctly, they can bring more power to the worship and direct even more attention to God and to the cross, but the substance is in the words.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lovers of Wisdom, Not Power—Lily Caswell

In Book VIII of Plato’s Republic, Socrates talks about the possibility of having a well-governed city. However, he also talks about how that particular form of government is impossible to have. A well-governed city becomes a possibility only if you can discover a better way of life for your future rulers than holding office.” (Plato, p 215) Maybe his version of a better life was for those in office to not be lovers of power, since it would then become a fight among rival lovers. Socrates gets to the point that the only rulers who don’t love power are true philosophers. Philosophers are lovers of wisdom and knowledge and not power, ergo they are the perfect rulers. Absolute power corrupts and power corrupts absolutely, so I’m thinking that maybe the trick to being a good ruler is for you to be a philosophical person who loves wisdom and not power. I commented on Jamie’s and Isabelle’s posts.
4 comments
Read more

How to Make a Clone - Clabo

I found books three and four to be very cringy. I mean, to me the idea of structurally producing good soldiers/guardians through heavy censorship is somewhat inhumane. I feel as if human beings should be allowed to experience every bit of knowledge they can at some point in their lives. To me, it seems as if the guardians are being guarded against information throughout their entire lives so they can solely fulfill the duties they were birthed into.  However, the influence and importance Plato places on poetry and music do make me wonder what it would be like if we had the same values as our military today. What if the United States military invested in the souls of its soldiers and placed within them emotional and intellectual values outside of what they have learned previously. Perhaps the military instills values and principles within soldiers to fulfill the same purpose as the guardians would in Plato's Republic and that is to only be that which the government wants you to be....
5 comments
Read more

Dystopian Origins Uncovered ////// Isabelle Ferguson

  I think that ideas eventually run out of originality and circle back to the original idea. During this week's reading, many of Socrates’ suggestions for a place of perfection reminded me of some novels I’ve read depicting dystopian worlds. Disclaimer: There are spoilers ahead. You have been warned.        To begin, in  The  Giver  by Lois Lowry censorship is a major theme. The novel is centered around a boy who is receiving memories withheld from the population! The government in The Giver is especially careful to censor the memories that may cause strife, anger, fear, sadness, etc. In the adults, this society is cemented. So, the government is especially strict with the youth. Socrates talks about verses to “obliterate” to prevent the descriptions from doing “harm to our future warriors” for the better half of Book III (Plato, page 44). The warriors he speaks of are the youth. He goes on to list the multitude of verses that should be done ...
7 comments
Read more